This invention relates generally to hotel management systems and, more particularly, to a wireless network hotel room management system for use by a hotel having a plurality of guest rooms for reserving a room, indicating the current occupancy status of a room, and indicating status of a housekeeping event—all in real time.
Hotel room management refers to several things. For instance, hotels have multiple rooms that are continuously being reserved, providing lodging to guests, being cleaned when a guest is not in the room, and being cleaned when a guest has checked out so as to be ready for a next guest. Each of these aspects of room management include inefficiencies and disadvantages. For example, a guest is traditionally required to stop at a front desk to check in and be given a room access key. Once in the room, the guest may hang a “Do-not-Disturb” sign on the outside of his door so as to indicate to housekeeping his desire that the room not be cleaned at that time. Housekeeping must actually pass by the room—possibly multiple times—to determine if it may be cleaned. Further, housekeeping typically must visually check each room to determine if the guest is not present and then takes the risk that the room may be cleaned before the guest returns.
Various systems have been proposed in the art to assist a user in reserving a hotel room, for visually indicating on the outside of a room door if housekeeping is or is not requested, and the like. Although assumably effective for their intended purposes, there is still a need for real time occupancy status of every guest room in a hotel or resort and for information that informs housekeeping when a respective guest room may be cleaned.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a hotel room management system that enables an online user to determine room availability, to reserve a room, and to receive a room key so that he may access the reserved room at the appropriate time without stopping at the hotel's front desk. Further, it would be desirable to have a hotel room management system that monitors guest occupancy in the reserved room in real time and determines whether housekeeping is either desired or possible. Still further, it would be desirable to have a hotel room management system monitors the time housekeeping is in a guest room so as to make sure housekeeping is completed before a guest returns, a new guest arrives, or just to maximize efficiency. In addition, it would be desirable to have a hotel room management system that automatically summons housekeeping to a guest room if a guest specifically requests cleaning or indicates that he will be gone from the room for longer than a predetermined time that is sufficient for completion of cleaning.